Before Things Changed
by Lavinia Swire
Summary: Once upon a time, before things changed, there were three sisters who were best friends. A series of oneshots about the Crawley sisters as children.  #5 - Christmas
1. Kidnapping Sybil

**I don't own anything. **

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><p>Very late at night, two small figures tiptoe up the stairs of the east wing of Downton to the third floor.<p>

"I'm tired. What are we doing?" Edith whines as Mary leads her by the hand along the corridor to the night nursery.

Mary shushes her.

"Be quiet, silly!" she hisses. "We're kidnapping Sybil!"

"But why?"

"She's probably bored up there on her own," says Mary charitably. "And it'll be fun! We can sneak her back to our room and play with her. We can't play properly when the nurse is there."

Edith mumbles something about "Mama wouldn't like", but stops after a glare from Mary.

They reach the door. The corridor is very dark and they can just about hear the nurse breathing inside the nursery. Edith is posted outside by Mary to guard, and stands sucking her thumb, not entirely sure what she should do if anybody does come along. Mary herself slips inside the nursery and softly closes the door.

Edith listens hard and hears nothing for what seems like hours. Then there is a tiny scraping from inside the nursery and the faintest of faint footsteps, and Mary reappears, carrying Sybil very carefully.

They tiptoe back down to their room. There is a sticky moment on the stairs when Sybil half-wakens and murmurs, flapping her hands. Edith freezes in panic, visions of her angry nurse and even more furious Papa looming before her. Cautiously Mary stops too. She doesn't dare rock Sybil the way she's seen the nurse do – they are halfway down the staircase and Sybil is fairly heavy for Mary – but she holds her more firmly and begins to softly sing 'Twinkle Twinkle Little Star'. Sybil stirs a little again and then falls asleep.

Luckily for them, Sybil is a quiet baby and a tired baby, and they make it back to their own room with no further incidents, Edith quaking and Mary filled with glee at the success of their heist.

"Now we can play all night, just the three of us! We can do all the things the nanny doesn't let us play, like menagerie and pillow fighting and the game we made up with the blankets all tied together – Edith, you aren't _tired_, are you?"

"I'm just – just a tiny bit sleepy," Edith says with an enormous yawn.

"We'll have a nap first, then," Mary allows, yanking all the bedding onto the floor. "We've got all night to play."

Sybil is still fast asleep. Mary lies her down on top of a pillow; Edith curls next to her and is asleep in seconds. Mary pulls the eiderdowns a little more closely around the two of them and sits down beside them.

In her sleep Sybil stretches and waves her hands in the air. Absent-mindedly Mary reaches out and Sybil wraps her fingers tightly around Mary's forefinger.

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><p>When the nurse rushes into the girls' bedroom in a panic the next morning, having woken to find Sybil gone, she finds that the blankets, eiderdowns and pillows have been used to create a nest on the floor.<p>

Sybil is curled up between the two older girls, clutching Mary's hand tightly in one little fist and Edith's in the other. Edith is lying closely round Sybil. Mary is sitting half-propped up on a pillow with Sybil lying in the crook of her elbow and her free hand stretched over to Edith.

All three of them are asleep and their hands are linked so tightly it looks as though they will never let go.

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><p><strong>I love writing the Crawley sisters as children, it's so much fun! <strong>

**This is going with my canon, where Cora has a difficult labour and Sybil is born prematurely, so she is a) a smaller than average baby, allowing a sturdy five- or six year old Mary to carry her around the house, and b) separated a bit from Mary and Edith, and pretty delicate generally so the nurse is very careful about what she does and doesn't do with the other girls.**

**Reviewers get to cuddle baby Sybil!**


	2. Engaged

**Thank you so much to everyone who reviewed the last chapter - I got back from holiday to find a whole load of reviews and it really made my day! **

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><p>There is sobbing coming from Mary and Edith's room.<p>

Edith notices when she hurries upstairs to fetch a hat for their mother. The sound is unusual enough to make her pause outside the door. The only person likely to be in their room is Mary, and Mary Crawley doesn't cry.

Forgetting about the hat, Edith tiptoes closer to the door. One the one hand, she really wants to know why Mary is so upset. On the other, if Mary is as distraught as she sounds then she won't take kindly to being disturbed.

However, Edith's curiosity outweighs her anxiety. She pushes open the door.

Mary is lying face down on her bed with her head buried in her pillow; she is crying so hard that her whole body is shaking.

Mary never cries. She is the brave, fierce one who teases Edith for bursting into tears as often as she does. When Sybil cries Edith is the one who sympathises and hugs her, nearly in tears herself. Mary always conjures up an instant plan to cheer Sybil up, whether that involves catching tadpoles in their shoes or creeping down to the kitchen to sneak cakes from the pantry.

Now Mary is the one in tears, and Edith has absolutely no idea what to do.

She steps into the room, closes the door and walks tentatively over to the bed. Mary looks up at her. Her face is scarlet and her hair is sticking up around her head.

"Mary, what's wrong?" Edith whispers. "Are you ill?"

"No-o."

"Aren't you coming with us? Granny's here and we're going to see Uncle James and Patrick. Remember Patrick said that Uncle James is having a dinner party tonight so we can -"

Mary wails and flings herself back down on the bed.

Coming to the conclusion that Mary must be terribly ill, probably inches from death, Edith is about to panic and sprint from the room to fetch someone, _anyone_. Then Mary gasps something. Her voice is so muffled by sobs and the pillow that it only comes out as a mumble. Edith frowns and leans closer.

"What did you say, Mary?"

Mary lifts her head for the second time.

"I have – I have to marry him!"

"Who?" Edith asks, utterly bewildered.

"Patrick!"

Edith is speechless. Mary continues to sob.

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><p>Once Edith is capable of forming words, she stammers out:<p>

"How do you know?"

Mary doesn't answer straight away. Rolling over and slowly sitting up, she crosses her legs and fumbles in her pocket for her handkerchief. She is trying to calm her sobs but tears are still dripping down her face. Edith sits down next to her and presses her own handkerchief into Mary's hand. Carefully Mary wipes her eyes. She doesn't begin to speak until she has almost recovered.

"I – I heard Granny talking to Mama. She said something about sons and a disappointment, and th-then I definitely, definitely heard her say, 'When Mary marries Patrick then this family will have another chance.'" She pauses to blow her nose. "She really, honestly did say it!"

"I believe you," Edith says weakly.

"But I don't want to marry him! He's too short and his hair sticks up all the time. Anyway, he's more than a year younger than me." She says this as if it's the equivalent of being a mass murderer.

Without thinking about it Edith puts an arm around Mary and pats her on the back. Mary leans in and props her head on Edith's shoulder.

"Well, if you don't want to marry him, you'll just have to find someone else," Edith says logically.

Mary blinks tears away and lowers her voice to a whisper. "What if nobody wants to marry me?"

"Don't be silly," Edith answers, imitating their grandmother's brisk tone. "You don't have to actually get married for simply ages yet, and you'll have your coming out in London before then, so there's bound to be hundreds of men that aren't Patrick who will want to marry you."

Mary has stopped crying now, but her eyes are red and her voice is still a little wobbly. "But if nobody else wants to marry Patrick then I might have to. Maybe none of the other girls will like him."

"I like him," Edith says, a little wistfully.

Secretly she thinks that she wouldn't mind getting married to Patrick at all. He's always kind to her; he includes her in their games even when Mary's impatient with her and tries to persuade him to leave her out.

Mary wipes away the last remnants of tears and glances at her. "Would you like to marry him?"

Edith attempts a casual tone. "I wouldn't mind. I'd rather marry him than some horrible person I don't know." She hesitates. "Would you mind if I did? If he asked me when I'm older, I mean?"

"I don't care. You were right. I've got plenty of time to find someone much better than Patrick. A Duke or someone like that. And you can marry Patrick, if you still want to when you're grown up," Mary promises. "Then Sybil can get married too and -"

"And we'll all live happily ever after," Edith finishes, giggling.

"Yes," Mary agrees, slinging her arm around Edith's shoulders, "we will. Now come on – I have to tell Patrick that we certainly _aren't_ going to get married. I don't want him getting any ideas."

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><p><strong>I have lots of ideas for my upcoming chapters, but if anyone has a prompt or an idea that they'd like to see, stick it in a review or PM and I'll see what I can do!<strong>


	3. Ballet Lessons

**Thanks so much to everyone for reviewing last time. I'm incredibly happy that people like reading my fics!**

**This comes from a prompt by Syblime about the sisters taking ballet lessons and it being the start of the rivalry between Mary and Edith.**

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><p>"First position. Don't turn your feet out so far, Edith, or you'll overbalance."<p>

Edith frowns and shuffles her feet.

The girls had been taken to see the ballet of Cinderella in London and had all adored it, for different reasons. Mary had loved the glamorous costumes, the jewellery, the hairstyles; Sybil's favourite fairy tale was Cinderella, and she had found it wonderful seeing all her favourite parts acted out, squeaking with excitement when the prince came on at the end carrying the glass slipper. For Edith it had been the dancer who played Cinderella herself. She was plain compared to her two 'sisters' in the show, but when she danced she outshone everybody, and she had received a standing ovation at the end.

After that Edith, closely followed by Mary and Sybil, had begged their father to let them have ballet lessons. This is the reason why Edith is standing grumpily behind Mary and Sybil in the music room, feeling miserable and gripping the makeshift barre as though it is a lifebelt.

"Second position. Good, Mary. Third position. Edith, there's no need to _cling_ to the barre like that, it isn't going anywhere. Hold it lightly."

Their ballet teacher is a sister of their governess. She has grey hair permanently scraped back in a bun and a harassed expression. Edith dislikes her.

The torture at the barre finally ends and the three of them move to the centre of the room for what Sybil calls "proper dancing". Sybil is too young to be much good at dancing yet, but she twirls and points her toes and has a wonderful time at the lessons.

Mary has more natural talent for dancing than either of the other girls. Unfortunately, she also has a competitive streak the length of the county and, Sybil being an unsatisfactory opponent, takes it out on her other sister. Edith is exceedingly competitive but less gifted at dance, and consequently comes off worst in their unofficial competition each lesson.

After their first lesson, when Mary was clearly better than her and was liberally praised by the teacher and her parents, Edith became determined to do better than her. Stealing away into empty rooms and corridors as often as she could in the days leading up to the next lesson, she resolutely practiced the positions and jumps that Mary executed with such ease.

The lesson had come round in due course and, to Edith's dismay, the teacher had announced that they would be starting a new dance that lesson. The following weeks after that, Edith had struggled on while Sybil skipped about the room and Mary gracefully performed each new move.

"Fourth position. Excellent."

Edith has no plans to let Mary's reign over the dance class continue unhindered. If she has to stay up all night to practice, so be it.

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><p>"Edith?"<p>

Edith shoots behind a bookshelf as her father's voice echoes around the library. She isn't quite quick enough. Robert, carrying a candle and looking confused, appears at the end of the shelf.

"What on earth are you doing there in the dark?"

He takes in the ballet shoes on her feet, the bookshelf at barre height, the books removed and piled on the floor and finally her miserable expression.

"I was practicing," Edith mumbles. "For ballet."

"At eleven o'clock at night? Surely it's not that urgent."

She sniffs. Robert looks slightly alarmed at the prospect of dealing with a sobbing daughter in the middle of the night.

"I'll go and get you some milk, and then you must go back to bed."

When he returns ten minutes later carrying a mug of hot milk, he sits down in the big armchair and she squirms onto his lap.

Once she has finished her milk, he looks down at her sternly. Edith suddenly has the strangest feeling that he knows all about her competition with Mary, and why she was practicing ballet positions in the library in the middle of the night.

"Edith, it's not good to be jealous of people. It -" He breaks off his lecture when he sees her expression. Sighing, he puts his arm around her.

"Your mother and I, improbably as it may seem, love our daughters each the same. You all have different talents but you are all our children. You don't have to fight with Mary or try and be better at her than everything."

"I don't want to be better at everything. I just want to be better at one thing," Edith mutters.

"It doesn't matter who's better at what, Edith. Because you are my daughter and I love you, no matter what."

Robert stops for a moment, seemingly unsure how to carry on, then hugs his daughter gently.

He suddenly becomes brisk again, as though embarrassed by his last speech. "Now – back to bed."

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><p>"First position. Edith, point your toes a little more – and for Heaven's sake, girl, there's no need to hang onto the barre like that!"<p>

Edith adjusts her position and ignores Mary's small smirk.

Even when their teacher announces that they are starting a new dance today, Edith doesn't really care that her hours spent practicing were all for nothing.

Because for now, at least, sometimes a cup of hot milk and a hug from your father are all you need to make everything all right again.


	4. Cora and Mary

**Thanks to everyone who's reviewed so far; it always makes my day! On a slightly related note, thank you also to everyone who voted for Spinning Tales and/or Snowdrops and Crocuses in the Highclere Awards - I really do appreciate it. **

**I've been stuck in a bit of a rut with my fics and really busy with Sixth Form, but I finally had time to write this.**

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><p>"…and this is the hallway. We always meet our visitors here. Isn't it nice?"<p>

The bundle of blankets in Cora's arms gurgles and a chubby arm waves in the air.

"I can still remember the very first time I came to Downton," Cora continues, lowering her voice conspiratorially. "I was so nervous. I was desperate to make a good impression on your grandmother, because I knew she was very scary and I didn't expect her to like me very much.

"Do you know what I did, Mary? I tripped on the hem of my skirt and nearly fell on the floor! Your papa grabbed my arm so I didn't hurt myself, but I was terribly embarrassed. Then your granny just _glared_ at me. I'd never been so scared in my whole life."

Cora glances around her, then back at the tiny dark-haired baby she is holding.

Robert had thought she was being ridiculous – "She won't understand what you're saying, my dear. What's the point in touring the house with her when she's barely a fortnight old?"

She couldn't explain to Robert how that wasn't the point. She wanted to just hold her child and talk nonsense to her like you were supposed to do with babies, not have her being examined by everyone. She wanted to cuddle her daughter herself, not have the nurse do it for her.

After being crowded by the nurse, Dr Clarkson, the Dowager Countess, her parents and what seemed like thousands of other visitors who had come to inspect the latest addition to the Crawley family, Cora wanted an hour or two when she could keep Mary to herself. Lady Grantham would doubtless say with a sniff that this was not the correct attitude for the mother of the future Earl to have (and probably that it was also the sort of strange notion one should expect from an American).

But Cora is a little less scared of her mother-in-law now, and she loves to cuddle Mary and talk to her; she doesn't care that Mary isn't a boy or that wanting to hold her own child seems peculiar to the Dowager Countess. Anyway, Robert understands a little: he had barely let go of Mary on the day she was born.

"There's the library through there, Mary, but Papa's working so we can't disturb him." She peers quickly round the door. Dear Robert, so clearly besotted with his daughter from the very first minute he had held her, despite trying to hide it.

Hugging Mary tighter, Cora walks over to the stairs and sits down on the bottom step.

She knows that in future there would be worries about a brother for Mary – and sisters too – and governesses and (much later) seasons and prospective husbands. But at this second in time she has her husband and her perfect baby girl, and she is absolutely content.

Mary reaches up, grabs a loose strand of Cora's hair and tugs hard. Nervously Cora looks at Mary. If anything…well, anything that babies do happens, she isn't quite sure how to deal with it.

Mary blinks up at her placidly and then closes her eyes.

Cora holds Mary as she sleeps and feels happier than she has ever been.

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><p><strong>Please review! I'd really like to know what people think.<strong>


	5. Christmas

**It's beginning to look a lot like Christmas...so how could I not write a Christmas-themed chapter? Hope you enjoy!**

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><p>"Sybil, what are you doing?" Mary demanded, bursting into the room. The youngest Crawley sister was sitting in the middle of her bedroom floor, surrounded by wrapping paper, newspaper, string and ribbon.<p>

"I can't wrap presents on my own," Sybil explained mournfully. "I was trying to wrap Mama's, but the paper kept going in the wrong places and the ribbon tied itself up, so it looks a bit messy." She held up what looked like a bundle of newspaper scrunched up into a ball.

"What's that?" Edith asked curiously, peering from behind Mary.

"A bracelet. It's so pretty!" Sybil pulled open the bundle of wrapping paper and revealed a rather cheap-looking bracelet covered in bright gems. "I went shopping with Mrs Hughes to buy all my presents. I think everyone's going to like them; I spent _ever_ so long choosing." She tugged at a piece of ribbon enthusiastically. "Mrs Hughes was going to help me wrap everything up too, but I wanted to do it on my own."

"It might be difficult if you try and wrap all your presents by yourself," Mary said tactfully. "We don't have much time before Patrick arrives, and you need to be ready before then."

"We haven't done our presents, either, don't forget," Edith reminded Mary. "We can all wrap ours now. You go and get the rest of your gifts, Sybil – where are they?"

"Mama's and Granny's are in Pharaoh's bed and the rest are in Mr Carson's room. He's been looking after them for me. I thought he might tell Mama and Granny what theirs were, so I hid them somewhere he wouldn't look."

Mary smiled. "Good idea."

As Sybil raced out of the room, Mary turned to her other sister and gestured to the pile of newspaper and ribbons.

"Right, Edith, let's go through all this."

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><p>Just as Mary and Edith finished sorting the bundles of ribbons and smoothing out the wrapping paper, Sybil trotted back in with a pile of gifts.<p>

"I got Papa a new tie," she announced, waving a lurid green and gold striped creation. "All his other ones are boring. Do you think he'll like it?"

Mary caught Edith's eye and suppressed a smile. "He'll love it, darling," she answered indulgently.

"And I got the bracelet I showed you for Mama and some smelling salts for Granny and some sweets for Mrs Hughes..." Sybil chattered on as she laid out all her gifts on the floor one by one. Then she plumped down next to them and looked expectantly at Mary and Edith.

Mary thought for a moment.

"I know what we can do, Sybil. I'll hold the paper and you can tie the ribbon." She folded the wrapping paper around the gift before Sybil could protest, looped the ribbon around it and handed the ends to Sybil, who, with Edith's help, managed to tie a perfectly presentable bow.

Sybil laughed delightedly.

"I did it!"

"That looks wonderful," Edith praised, glancing at the clock. "Now let's do all the others and then we can put everything under the tree before Patrick gets here. What did you get for him? You can wrap his present next."

Sybil beamed and produced a rather damp cardboard box with holes in the lid. "It's a frog. I caught it the other day. Patrick wants one to go in his pond and make tadpoles."

Edith opened the lid of the box, turned a little green and closed it quickly. "Actually, I don't think the frog would be very happy being wrapped up. You can share my present for Patrick for now and then give him the frog later.

"We've got ten minutes," Mary interrupted, discreetly sliding the box away from Sybil. "We need to get everything sorted out. Come on, Sybil -" she held out the next parcel "- you can tie up the ribbon for this one."

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><p>Late that night, when Mary and Edith were both in bed, Edith spoke.<p>

"Mary?"

"Mmm?"

"Do you think Sybil forgot about our presents?"

Mary frowned. "Surely not. She went shopping with Mrs Hughes, remember?"

"Yes, but it didn't sound like she had anything for us." Edith rolled over, looking troubled. "She didn't even mention having bought something, and she isn't that good at keeping secrets."

"Well, I don't mind if she hasn't bought me anything," Mary informed her airily.

"I don't either," Edith said, sounding rather less certain. She didn't mind, not really, but what if Sybil had missed her out on purpose? What if -

"I know what you're thinking," Mary said, yawning. "Stop being so ridiculous and go to sleep, otherwise Christmas is never going to arrive."

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><p>"I love our Christmas tree more than almost anything else in the whole world," Sybil told Edith ecstatically, gazing up at the enormous fir tree covered in decorations and candles. The presents were displayed carefully around its base – Edith spotted several of Sybil's presents that she had helped to wrap the day before.<p>

Mary was standing beside them, pretending to be far too grown-up for Christmas and secretly enjoying every minute.

"Who are they from?" she asked curiously, pointing at two of the most weirdly wrapped parcels in the world. The paper was crumpled, the ribbons were knotted and it would have been impossible to guess what was inside them.

Sybil beamed and wriggled.

"Sybil?"

"They're for you!" the child giggled. "It was a secret!"

"Why didn't you tell us?" Edith asked. "We helped you with all your other presents yesterday. Why didn't you mention these ones?"

"I wanted them to be a surprise. If you'd helped me you'd have seen them and that would have spoiled it." She poked at the ribbon on one of them, looking slightly unsure. "They're not very good, are they?"

Edith hugged Sybil. "They're perfect. And it was a complete surprise! We had absolutely no idea!"

"We just didn't think you could keep a secret for that long," Mary added.

Smiling again, Sybil grasped for Mary and Edith's hands. "I love you both even more than our tree," she told them generously, bouncing up and down. "Merry Christmas!"

Edith smiled too. "Merry Christmas, Sybil."

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><p><strong>Happy Christmas, everyone! And please do review - I'd love to know what you think. <strong>


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